Vancouver man faces Chicago drug charges

A Vancouver man who passed out in the back of a Chicago cab is accused of possessing nearly a half-million dollars worth of illegal drugs, according to Chicago-area newspapers.

Joseph Andrew Hoffman, 25, entered the cab in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood Saturday afternoon and asked to be taken to an address in another neighborhood, Rogers Park.

The taxi driver told police Hoffman chatted on his cell phone for half the trip, then passed out. Worried he would be cheated out of his fare, the cabbie tried to rouse Rogers for 10 minutes, then drove Rogers to a police station, according to the Chicago Tribune.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police called for paramedics and searched a bag he was carrying, looking for identification. Instead they found bottles of a clear, crystalline substance connected by wires to a power source. Police allege it was a miniature methamphetamine laboratory.

Also in the bag: three pounds of what police identified as methamphetamine, with a street value of nearly $450,000, according to the Tribune.

Later, after Hoffman was revived, police searched a home where he had been staying and found what they said was a gallon-size bottle of crystal material believed to be GHB, or the “date rape drug,” along with small bags of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and $1,401 cash.

He was charged with six felony counts.

On Sunday, Cook County, Ill., Judge Maria Kurakos-Ciesil ordered him held on $100,000 bond.

He will receive a preliminary hearing on the charges on Jan. 12, according to the Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times reported Hoffman gave authorities an address on Royal Street in Vancouver’s Ogden neighborhood.

The taxi driver told the Tribune that he ended up getting stiffed out of his full fare despite his efforts.